Author: Sue Young

The desire to relive youth

Comes on like a contagion

A midlife crisis is an apt word

To describe the malady

Many go there

But some never return

A clock can be biological

Ticking loud enough

To cause ears to bleed

And heads to explode

And minds to claw

At the walls of time

Like a trapped animal

Remembering suddenly

Things never done

Places never been

Hearts never explored

Lands never conquered

Dreams never realised

Emotions never felt

Repression never lifted

Oceans never explored

Projects never finished

The clock can be cerebral

A desire or need to ram

And jam in, as much as possible

Like filling a suitcase to bursting

So it can’t be closed

Easily

Red sports car

Leather jacket

Guitar

A younger model

A need to re-affirm

Masculintiy

Femininity

Desirability

Or all three

And a hope to escape

The existance one finds themselves

Embroiled in.

The midlife crisis is actually

Three quarters of the way into life

Creating an air of desperation

Suffocation

Drowning

Falling

A need to fall

Sweet surrender

To practice for that other surrender

Of death

But hopefully

Once the crisis is over

You come away – unscathed

Without leaving too many casualties

In your wake

And it’s back to reality

Normality need not be

Stale soup and slippers

Instead, it can be sanity

And staid need not be stagnant

And dreams need not be broken

And summer can burst through

The illusion of spring.